Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (italics).

Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.

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THE AMERICAN SPIRIT IN THE WRITINGS OF AMERICANS OF FOREIGN BIRTH

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The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth

SELECTIONS CHOSEN AND EDITED

BY ROBERT E. STAUFFER, A. M., B. L. S.

The Christopher Publishing House Boston, U. S. A.

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COPYRIGHT 1922 BY THE CHRISTOPHER PUBLISHING HOUSE

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

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To my revered friend and teacher Joseph Lorain Shunk And to my younger friend Henry Praus

The one born in the United States The other in far-away Czecho-Slovakia But in both of whom I have found True and noble manifestations Of the American spirit

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Let us judge our immigrants also out of their own mouths, as future generations will be sure to judge them.

Mary Antin.

He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.... The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.

Crèvecoeur.

Where the schoolhouse banner flaunts the morning breeze, Where the rough farm student strides amid the wheat, Where the voice of knowledge fills a thousand halls, Where the athletes in their mimic warfare meet; Where the master grasps the brand Of lightning in his hand, And the hidden Powers of Air to service bent Proclaim the issue of the long experiment, I behold the future race Arise in strength and grace; Shall they falter? Shall they fail? Shall they endure? Lo, the onward march is sure.

William James Dawson.

INTRODUCTION

A visit to the public library of many towns and cities of five to twenty thousand inhabitants, and inquiry among persons of considerable and even college education, reveals a widespread unacquaintance with the writings of our foreign-born citizens. Seldom does one find the books of more than four or five of these authors upon the shelves of the smaller public and college libraries; yet these institutions are doing much to develop public opinion in countless communities made up for the most part of native Americans who have hitherto been largely ignorant of and indifferent to the condition and aims of the foreign population, but whose intelligent and sympathetic interest in the foreign-born must be aroused if the great gulf between the two is to be bridged.

The funds of many libraries, it is true, are so limited as to preclude the purchase of a majority of these books, worth while as they are; yet the splendid American spirit to be found in many of them ought to be more familiar to Americans, whether native or foreign-born. This volume of selections is offered, therefore, not as an equivalent for the reading of the complete works here represented, but to help stimulate a more general interest in their authors and in books of this type, and to show with a cumulative emphasis the essence of the genuine Americanism with which these writings are imbued.

As one reads these and other works of the foreign-born in historical sequence, he will notice that their manner of writing has become less reflective and philosophical and more critical and impassioned, but that keeping pace there has been an intense and burning patriotism. The early colonists and immigrants were seldom touched except in their political liberties; recent immigrants have been growing increasingly sensitive to the infringement of their social and economic rights. This, of course, is a quality not peculiar to the writings of the foreign-born, but is incident to the modern industrial and social situation with conditions very different from those obtaining in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The struggle against social forces with their great complexity and ever renewed and boundless energy has demanded of the recent immigrants the highest qualities for success.

Nearly all the selections included in this volume will be found charged with a strong human quality, revealing the poignant homesickness of the stranger in a new world, his sensitiveness, his forward-looking hope, his realization of both the humorous and the tragic side of his case, his fine hero-worship, his firm belief in the unique mission and high destiny of his adopted country, and his faith in the brotherhood of man and the dawning of a new day upon the earth.